Friday, September 12, 2008

Muslim integration in Brussels and Detroit

The Brussels Institute for European Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel published a report on the integration of muslims in Brussels, based on a comparative study of the situation of muslims in Detroit, the city with the highest density of muslims in the US.

Download a pdf version of the report here

Some of the recommendations in the report are controversial, as they are linked to the highly contentious issues of the hijab/headscarf, the question of education and failing school careers, as well as the perceived reliance of immigrants on the welfare system.

The two leading Flemish newspapers De Morgen and De Standaard make note of the report's publication, but reveal diverging perspectives on the matter. Tellingly, De Standaard turns a quote from the report into a sensationalist headline evoking immediate and strong responses from the reader. At the same time, it is the only paper including a dissenting voice in its reporting.

Read for yourself :
De Morgen : Respect en tolerantie sleutel tot geslaagde integratie moslims

De Standaard : 'Laat moslims bidden op het werk'

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Thursday, September 11, 2008

SWISH report : advice to al-Qaida

Paul Rogers at openDemocracy publishes the eighth SWISH report from the South Waziristan Institute of Strategic Hermeneutics to the al-Qaida Strategic Planning Cell. SWISH is a management consultancy that has issued seven advisory reports to al-Qaida before.

This time, ahead of the the US elections, this is the recommendation :

"Your concern must still be with the prospect of an Obama victory, and a key question is whether you should engineer a major attack against US interests shortly before the election. We would advise against this. Whether or not you have the resources to mount a major attack (and we understand why you will not take us into your confidence), the result could be unpredictable.

In the immediate wake of a 9/11-scale attack within the continental United States, Obama's advisers would know that this would benefit their opponent strongly. They might well then take the risk of going on the offensive against McCain, pointing to the folly of George W Bush's policies and the manner in which they have made the United States unsafe. It would be a risky strategy but these would be desperate times for the Obama campaign and it might just come off. The risk to you is too great and for this reason alone we do not advocate such an attack.

Instead, we stand by our recommendation in February 2008 that you seek, in the weeks before the election, to make it known that you favour Barack Obama and believe he would be a president with whom you could do business. This would be combined with strong statements to the effect that you believe a John McCain presidency would be a disaster for the United States and that he would be a leader unto darkness and death. Such a strategy, we believe, would go a long way to ensure he was elected, this being the outcome you should most earnestly desire."


Favoured by wide-eyed Europeans and shrewd muslim fundamentalists, Obama doesn't stand a chance in an America that has a cork up its ass.

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